Method for making a material having the general properties of wrought-iron.



B. 0. LAUTH. METHOD FOR MAKING A MATERIAL HAVING THE GENERAL PROPERTIES OF WROUGHT IRON. APPLICATION FILED DEO.14, 1911.

1,067,528. Patented July 15, 1913.

27?;6/4294" Bey-{lard C 120,421,170,

W M K ww any price is limited, while the small units Y BERNARD c. LAUTH, or rrrrsnnnei a, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR T0 THOT 5.3 S.

BLAIR, JR GEE- CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

- Application filed December 14, 1911. Serial No. 665,655.

To all whom. 2'2 may, concern:

Be it known that I, BERNARD C.-LAUTH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Pittsburgh, in the county of Allegheny and State of'Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Methods for Making a Material Having the General Properties of lVrought-Iron, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improved method for making a material having the general properties. of wrought-iron. It involves in its practice a Bessemer converter of any form and'a balling-furnace preferably, but not necessarily, of the type herein illustrated, Figure 1 being a diagrammatic representation of a Bessemer converter and Fig. 2 being a diagrammatic representation of a balling furnace of annular form and adapted to revolve on its horizontal axis and to be oscillated upon a horizontal diameter for the purpose of discharging its contents.

1 term the product of my process a material having the general properties ofwrought-iron, because the leading authorities on iron and steel donot agree upon their definitions. One leading authority, for example, states in a general way, that the product of the puddling furnace is iron and the product of a Bessemer converter is steel. The present product, resulting from a duplex process in which both a converter and a balling furnace are used, finds no place in this definition. It has, however, the low carbon content and may, and preferably does have, the high slag content of wrought-iron, so that tested by any definition of the substance itself, apart from the process for making it. the substance practically identical with ordinary wroughtiron.

There is an immense demand at the present time for wron ht iron roviding the same can be supplied at anything approaching the cost of steel. The making of wrought-iron commercially is, however, essentiallv a hand-proccss,'all efforts at mechanical paddling having failed for reasons which will hereinafter pointed out. The number of available trained puddlers is Very limited and therefore quantity of wrought-iron which can now be made at FOR MAKING A MATERIAL HAVING THE GENERAL WROUGHT-IRON.

Specification of Letters Paient.

PROPERTIES Patented July 15, 1913.

in which the present puddling process must be worked and the very high labor cost. make the price of even the small supply exceedingly high. ing from my invention is that the iron can be made mechanically and in large units so that the possible-supply may be greatly increased and the cost diminished. It is also well known that at the 'present time the most desirable steel-is made by the open-v hearth process. There are in existence a very large number of Bessemer com'crtm's which have either gone wholly out of use, or which are continued in operation. only because of the loss of investment which would be entailed if the Bessemer process were replaced by the better open-hearth process.

One important result flow-- One principal object of the present invention is to enable these Bessemer converters to belprofitably utilized in the manufacture of what is substantially wrought-iron. with but little additional outlay. In short, it is believed that the use of the present invention will greatly increase the available supply of iron, while decreasing its cost. and 9 will have. an important relief; efiect uponlh'c average quality of the steel produced by reason ofthe fact that the present process will make it possible for the Bessemer plants to continue. in business without making steel.

In the ordinary paddling process, the molten impure or pig iron is stirred or agitated in the presence. of iron oxid or orewhich is suppl'rcd as fcttling lining in the puddling furnace. As the iron becomes purified and goes to nature it forms a ball to the surface of which pieces of the fettling lining have a tendency to stick so as to be incorporated in the ball. The personal care of the puddler is required to prevent these pieces of ore from being picked up. it this personal care be removed, as in the case of all mechanical puddling furnaces heretofore suggested, so much fettling gets worked into the ball as to produce such seriously detrimental effect as to have made all mechanical nddling devices wholly inipractical, so tiat to-day wrought-iron is puddled by hand just as it always has been. The strength of the puddler is such that two hundred pounds is about the limit. of the size of balls which can be. made. Mechanical paddling being thns made impracticable and high cost.

' lining\of the same general character acid sli the reason for the SIllfill-ifl'flllilble: 3 supply of wroughturon even at its present have discovered that m'oltclrpig iron can be blown in a Bessemer converter, of or dinary commercial form and preferably acid lined. such as that diagraunnatically illustrated in F 1. until sufficient iron oxid has been. formed in the-metal to oxidize i'hatevcr carbon may remain, and the product of this operation can be introduced into a suitable receptacle preferably a rotary or I mechan' ul balling furnace of the type genorally idicated in Fig. 2, which furnace has no f tlinq lining, and that in such furnace, unccr .zc influence of a rercrberatrn'fi' 1%. ie the iron oxid formed in the converter will react upon the remaining carbon, bringi ing the metal. to nature expeditiously and cheaply. with the result that large balls can be quickly fcrn'ied. v

l s well iunlerstood in the licssemer proci'. the carbon oxidized before the iron the oxidation of these materials overlapping. so that before all the carbon is oxidized, a coi'iSidQrable quantity of the iron acted upon. In the' ordinary use of the l w-nrcrtcr for making steel, iron oxid is a. very objectionable product and therefore the tr atment in the converter is usually stopped before any substantial oxidation of the. iron occurs. The blast is never continued in steel making after the carbon reaches L05. andat that point some iron oxid is formed which "met afterward be reduced by such deoxidiziug agent as an excess of manganese or some" aluminum. In the present process the blast is continued until enough iron oxid is formed to oxidize the remaining carbon. This point can readily be determined, in any given case, by the simplest chemical formula and the correct length of blow to produce the desired percentages of carbon and iron oxid can be made cit-her by blowing a certain time after the drop or decrease in the carbon flame or by blowing a certain number of revolutions, as is now common practice.

In the blowing step, the slag-forming constituents are, in the main, eliminated, and should the remaining iron be balled alone, it would it is thought, give too dry an iron. Therefore there is transferred to the balling furnace of Fig. 2, with the iron. a suitable quantity of slag. This preliminary separation of iron and slag has the advantage that the slag can be modified in any way desired to produce the best Wroughtiron under all the conditions, and a. wholly new slag may be made if desired for special purposes. However, in most cases the slag is the converter slag without modification. The balling furnace has a refractory (ass ih 5 100 mar'urzw J3EE or basicj'as the slag, and th refore usually of the same character as the lining of the converter used.

The lining is made free from separable ='particles which, like the fcttling of a puddling furnace, may he worked into theball.

The balling furnace with its charge of iron and slag is rotated to keep the charge in motion, and the iron oxid reacts on the carbon, bringing the metal tonal'ure. As

successiye particles reach this point they unite until a ball of sc-me size in formed which rolls around the balling furnace, picking up from the bath of slag and molten iron successire particles as they go. to nature,

until at length all, the metal is incorporated in the ball. The furnace is then dumped, or the ball otherwise removed, any iron 0X1d not reduced .in oxidizing the carbon remain-- ing in the slag. With the nice methods now well known for prcdetermining the constituems of the product of the Bessemer converter, it is possible to balance the carbon andiron oxid accurately so that the iron oxidizedidn the converter will be almost rrhollpubduc'ed in the balling furnace, to the end that but slight waste of iron will occur.

It is evident that the final or balling step is whollyinechanical and can be worked on large as well as on small charges, the only limitbeing the size of balls that may be conveniently handled in rolling processes to follow. I contemplate making balls of about the weight of ingots now being used many given plant, so that there need be no substantial change ill rolling methods. The manufacture of finished iron products can thus\ be substituted for that of Bessemer steel products upon the installation of the balling furnaces in suitable numbers to handle the product of the. converters and of one or more squeezers to reduce the balls to proper size for the first asses of the rolls. I realize thatthe foregoing process is subject to considerable variation in detail and I do not therefore intend to be limited to the specific embodiment shown, except as pointed out in the following claims, in which my intention is to claim all the novelty in the process as broadly as is permitted-by the state of the art.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is-- '1. The method which consists in blowing molten impure iron according to thellessenier process until the carbon is substantially oxidized and iron oxid is formed in sufficient quantity to oxidize the remaining carbon, and thereupon transferring the molten metal to,a receptacle and agitating it until the iron oxid oxidizes; the carbon and the metal goes to nature.

2. The method which consists in blownt qnen"t r t )C11. and therei metal to n, i i

agitating it rim es: the carbon and lore iron nccort n new process th l x I ch ming to the Lessesnostzint-ially meet in surfic ent uentin t enieining-cerhon. :intl thereiip 1e molten metal. i 21 n formed 4 '1 'r 21ml zi gitzi 1 1 the iron oxhl oxidizes the carbon (Lltl the metal to nature.

5. The method which consists in blowing molten impure iron according to the Besseinei' procers until the carbon is substantially UXl'llZQll zinc iron oxicl is formed in Still the l Tent quuntitr to oxidize remaining can hon, and thereupon transferring theunolten met-ml, ith a quantity of tecle having a 2021516 character it untn slag to a receplinln of the same acid or 21s the slag, and agitating the iron oxitl oxidizes the carbon ancl the metal goes to nature.

molten impure inc method which consiets in blowing iron according to the Reese iner process until the carbon is substantially oxidized and iron oxitl is for-men in sufiicient quantity to oxidize the renmining carbon, and thereupon transferring the molten metal, and a quantity of the slag formed in r W lie Q Hi q i L trig a iiing Oi actcr it esseiner operation, to a receptacle havth same acid or basic char- :is the converter incl there agitating until the ll'OIl OXlCl OXlCllZQS the carbon the metal goes to nature.

Y. Tie method which consists in blowing nolten impure iltd " antially oxidi eiilllcient quantit to oxidize the iron according to ti ".cid

-essemer process until the carbon is subformed remainzetl and iron oX-id is ing carbon, and thereupon transferring the molten metal,

and some of-the Bessemer slag, to an acitl lined receptacle and agitat- 111 ituntil the iron OXKl oxidizes the car bon and the metal goes to nature.

BERNARD C. LAUTH.

In presence of RUSSELL ILES,

DUDLEY Beownn.

.i of may be obtained for five cents each, by eclizress n Washington, 113. G3

g the Gommissioner of Patents, 

